Staying in Touch with Friends
Mike’s Blog 127
How do you maintain friendships, especially when on the other side of the globe?
It has been 2 years since I’ve been back home to USA. I spent a few weeks in September/Oct 2015 going to San Francisco, New York, and Florida. My son was about a year and a half year old, and my daughter wasn’t born, but expecting.
How does one keep on top of their friends and family from the other side of the globe?
Unfortunately, it seems that time and distance does put a pretty big challenge on keeping in touch.
Really, this is how this blog even started. Back in March 2007 I quit my job on Wall Street and my coworkers joked that I should document the progress of me quitting and going full time on e-commerce and my own venture. At the time I was just moving from New York City to San Diego, while sourcing from China. No idea I’d relocate to China and be writing this blog post (and V-LOG! Lol) over 10 years later.
But that is what this blog / vlog- is all about – trying my best to keep my friends and family back home up to date.
Yet often some of those friends and family don’t appreciate what I say and what I share. That is when things get complicated, as I don’t like to filter what I can and cannot say on the internet so there have been some discussions privately about that.
Starting the video blog in late 2015 has been an even better way to keep in touch with family and friends and build relationships. The other cool thing is I have noticed even team members that want to join my company watch my videos first and get to know me more. Valery cried at the video about the birth of my daughter, I remember talking to her about it on a bus ride phone interview I had with her.
What is next after video blogging? How can we further connect with our distant friends and family?
I cooperate with Shadowfactory.io, a VR/AR agency, doing some marketing, and while at the studio in Hong Kong I asked Kerian about the future of AR and VR for social media.
Can’t wait to be honest – dive into a virtual room with friends and family to see each other in real life. But even Kieran says you cannot replace real, human life interaction.
I do need to get back home to see my family. Its crazy my family hasn’t even met my daughter yet. Life is going so fast, and living abroad makes such huge challenges.
When will we invent teleportation? That would change the game entirely- even with my crossing this Hong Kong China border on the regular. Traveling physical land is such a waste of time and a barrier and boundary.
The internet is an amazing place and lets us all keep in touch and build and maintain relationships online – but seems nothing will beat real human interaction.